Department of Pediatrics

Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Research

Master
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A primary objective of the fellowship program is to train future academic neonatologists. To this end, nearly two-thirds of the three-year training period is devoted to research activity. Most of this time is spent in blocked months during the second and third years of fellowship training.

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Training

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Research training begins during the orientation month. In July, first-year fellows attend Fundamentals of Clinical Investigation. This course, which meets Monday through Thursday evenings for four weeks, provides an overview of patient-oriented research and includes instruction on critical appraisal of medical literature, research design, biomedical statistics, and ethics in research. The orientation also includes introductory sessions on cell and molecular biology. Courses in scientific writing and grant preparation are available as training progresses.

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Selecting an Interest and Mentor

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During orientation and for the first few months, fellows identify areas that interest them and explore opportunities for their research activities. In consultation with the program director, fellows are encouraged to meet investigators working in their field of interest and to visit laboratories.

Mentors can be selected from within the Division of Neonatology faculty, the Department of Pediatrics, or throughout Baylor College of Medicine, including the basic science departments.

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Completing a Project

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Once a mentor is selected, the fellow and mentor identify a specific research project and a training curriculum. A Scholarship Oversight Committee is appointed for each fellow to monitor progress during the course of training and to approve the training in scholarly activities upon completion of the fellowship program.

By the end of their second year, fellows are well established in their own research projects. During the third year, fellows present their data at national meetings and prepare a manuscript for publication.

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Scholarly Projects of Current Fellows

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Utility of Universal Chromosomal Microarray screening of infants with Critical Congenital Heart Defects: A retrospective study. – Ahmed Al Maazmi, Graduating Class of 2022.

Growth Differentiation Factor-15 in Preterm Infants and Its Relation to Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia: A Prospective Study. – Faeq Al-Mudares, Graduating Class of 2022.

The Role of Hydroxymethylation in Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia. – Gal Barbut, Graduating Class of 2022.

Predictive Factors of Head Growth Failure in Donor Human Milk Fed Infants. – Elena Itriago Araujo, Graduating Class of 2022.

Optimal Team Size and Roles for the Most Effective Resuscitation. – Nicole Neveln, Graduating Class of 2022.

Discovering “Threshold Concepts” to Becoming a Master Clinical Teacher. – Stephanie Vander-Plas Hale, Graduating Class of 2022.

A Comparison of Heart Rate and Arterial Blood Pressure Based Cerebral Autoregulatory Indices in Preterm Infants. – Howard Chao, Graduation Class of 2023.

Quantifying longitudinal levels of NGAL, MMP-9, Ig A in preterm infants. – Emily Niemyjski, Graduating Class of 2023

Maternal environmental lead exposure and racial/ethnic disparity in fetal body and brain size. –Danielle Gonzales, Graduating Class of 2023.

Neonatal Virome in Culture-Negative Sepsis and Systemic Inflammation in Preterm Neonates. –  Morcos Hanna, Graduating Class of 2023

Deciphering the Role of Regulatory T Cells and T Helper 17 Cells in Experimental Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia. – Meagan Goates, Graduating Class of 2023

The Role of EndoMT and miRNA30 in Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia associated Pulmonary Hypertension. – James D. Hammond II, Graduating Class of 2023